


Take Up a Place Beside Me

by goodnicepeople



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Families, Gen, M/M, no death! promise, the difficulties of goodbyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8651869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodnicepeople/pseuds/goodnicepeople
Summary: "It's gonna be hard," Taako says, when they're alone again. "You can't... do that. Every time."Or: Taako and Kravitz move in. Others move on. Some get dogs.





	

"A house?"

"You got it," Taako says. "Floors and walls and a roof and everything."

"You just..." Magnus gapes. "You just bought a house."

"Well, ya see," Taako says, lifting a finger. A nice blouse follows, untangles itself from a pile on the floor and floats gracefully into the air, folding itself up neatly. "Someone had a house, and we had some money, and we gave that person the money in  _exchange_  for the house -- "

Magnus waves his hands in the space between them, as if batting Taako's willful deflection out of the air.

"No, I know," he presses on, more indignantly, "like, how  _money_  works. I just -- when did you decide that?"

Taako grabs the folded shirt out of the air and places it in a trunk, kicking some mismatched shoes out of the way.

"Mags, hun," he tuts, looking up over his shoulder, batting his eyelashes in a way that's less apologetic and more fondly beleaguered, like talking to a pet dog. "You don't tell  _me_  every little whim that pops into that big 'ol head of yours."

_Yes I do_ , Magnus thinks a little indignantly. He tamps down that thought and all the emotions that accompany it and instead says,

"I guess I just didn't know you were considering leaving base for good."

"It happened pretty quickly. Wasn't trying to hide it from you."

"I didn't think you were."

"Okay, good," Taako says with finality, closing the trunk. He grins like he's just won the argument the two would insist they're very much not having. Taako stands and walks to him. Reaches up and brushes lint off Magnus' right shoulder with a sort of fond brusqueness. He thinks of teasing him about his shirt. Something ordinary. Something that insists this is all normal and not at all worth talking about. But instead he says,

"You'll come visit. When's the last time you spent time planetside without getting your ass kicked?"

Magnus barks a surprised laugh.

"Yeah," he says sort of distantly. "True."

\-----------------

And it's a nice house, too, Taako thinks when he stands in front of it. Not particularly large, and without some of the more grand architectural elements Taako might've yearned for, if left to his own whims. But when they'd first seen it, Kravitz said, "oh, there's space for a garden" and he'd said it in such a small little voice, like he hadn't meant to say it aloud at all. And suddenly Taako - who wouldn't describe himself as  _gracious_  per se, not greedy or disinterested, sure, but no mensch either - is overcome. Suddenly he wants to give this man a thousand gardens. Maybe more. An irresponsible number of gardens.

"Hoo, boy!" Taako exclaimed then. "This is the best one yet. Look at that roof! Are you kidding me?"

"You really like it," Kravitz stated, perhaps less a genuine question and more a comment on Taako's huge reaction.

"This has really gotta be the one, I just won't say no," Taako nodded. "I mean really. I hope  _you_  like it, because I'm just over the moon about it."

Kravitz smiled. Hooked one pinky around Taako's.

"I like it," he affirmed. And if he could physically blush, he would've. 

\-----------------

A lot of people leave now, is the thing. Their mission accomplished. The Bureau's main purpose achieved. Killian and Carey head out first, but not before throwing a goodbye-slash-surprise-engagement party that most attendees remember very fondly if not 90% hazily. No3113, too, leaves to explore the world. Sends back messages like, "-- and you won't believe the color of the sky here, the way it turns so purple at night! I wish y'all were here with me, I really do!"

Angus, too, finds a research position at some wildly prodigious university. Full room and board and such. They're thrilled to have him, and it seems Angus is thrilled to be there. 

"The thing is, though," Angus tells them one night, Merle and Magnus and Taako huddled around a stone of farspeech and all tacitly missing him much more than they'd let on, "no one really likes to goof much, here."

Merle grins. Likely because he's safe thousands of miles away and Angus can't see the way it lights up his whole face.

"Oh yeah? You're tellin' me not even one of those hoighty-toighty professors has thought to toss some books over your head?"

"Not even one, sir," Angus answers, sort of wistfully. "I mean, they're awful good to me. They listen to every word I say and really think I'm pretty good -- and I'm not trying to brag, you know, but I do think I'm doing a good job!"

"Sure you are, Ango," Magnus encourages with an uncomfortable amount of sincerity, the kind that makes the room feel a little too thick with something they don't care to acknowledge.

"But sometimes," Angus continues, and pauses. They can almost hear him worrying at his bottom lip in thought. "I guess I miss the fun we had. I mean, they call me 'Sir' here, can you believe it?"

Merle's goodbye party is a terse affair. At least the way Taako remembers it. He's sure others would hardly say the same, drunk off margaritas and dancing in the fake sand Taako transmuted on the quad. He remembers Merle red-faced and happy, happier perhaps than Taako had ever seen him.

Some time towards the end of the evening he wrangles Taako into a long hug, tight around his waist.

"C'mere," he says as he pulls away, gesturing for Taako to bend down. Taako crouches in front of him somewhat suspiciously.

"You're a good kid," he says. Taako rolls his eyes. 

"Oh, great, here it comes."

"No, I mean it," Merle insists. "I'm not sayin' this cause I'm drunk."

"Which you are."

"Which I am!" Merle cheerfully agrees. "But that don't change the fact that I mean what I said. You're a real good egg, and I'm proud of you. I want..."

He pauses for a moment, squeezes Taako's arm. 

"I hope my kids grow up to have half your fighting spirit."

"But not half my brain," Taako adds. 

"Gods, no, I wouldn't wish that on anyone," Merle answers with a toothy grin. They appreciate their usual, quick rapport, but an odd silence settles over them. A song Merle likes picks up in the distance, and still neither of them move.

"That's why I gotta be with 'em, you know? Make sure they turn out right. As right as I can help 'em be."

"Yeah," Taako says. It's very hard to say, for complicated reasons Taako can't fully parse. "That's good."

"I think Magnus gets it," Merle continues. "Or he will. I'll see ya real soon, bucko. Drop by any time."

 Taako finds Magnus under a nearby tree picking the label off a bottle of beer. 

"Not in the dancing mood, my man?" he chides, draping himself around a low branch.

"Don't think so, no," Magnus replies curtly. His eyes are bright and wet looking, but whether that's from intoxication or something more serious, Taako patently refuses to find out. 

"See, I heard this rumor that Magnus Burnsides can cut a rug. Actually, I think it was more of a  _brag_ , direct from the source - "

"I said no, Taako. Thanks."

Taako straightens up. Kicks one of Magnus' feet, sprawled out in front of him.

"Hey," he says, more firmly. "Go let Merle see you happy."

Magnus hisses at the contact and curls himself up tight. He mutters something under his breath that Taako can't hear but knows he doesn't like. Taako doesn't know what this is; this reticent sort of petulance. He thinks if he were a better person, he'd sit down with him and talk. Maybe he'd say something like, hey, you have to know I understand. But that's not who Taako is and  _fuck all_ if this isn't hard for him, too. Which Magnus understands, of course, but is choosing not to concede to. 

"Jeez, Magnus, what'd you think? The three of us were just going to live on the  _goddamn moon_  for the rest of our lives?" 

The silence that follows answers that question for Taako. 

"Alright," Taako snaps. "Well,  _I've_  got a friend to send off in style, because I'm not a jerk. Have a  _stellar_  rest of your fucking night."

Magnus is the first awake and ready to help see Merle off the next morning, carrying all his belongings to the hangar and prepared with kind, genuine parting words that bring tears to Merle's eyes. It's the best thing he can do by ways of an apology, and Merle kisses him on the forehead and invites him for Candlenights, "which ain't too far away, really!"

"It's gonna be hard," Taako says, when they're alone again. "You can't... do that. Every time."

Magnus looks up and away. Equal parts embarrassed and, it seems, genuinely afraid. All the same, he nods.

"Yes," he says, revealing nothing.

\------------------- 

Taako is ridiculously happy. Blissfully, stupidly, irresponsibly happy.

He sleeps in late in silk pajamas. He walks out onto the porch where Kravitz - already long awake - pokes up from whatever he's elbow-deep in in their garden and waves. Ridiculous and charming in a wide-brimmed sunhat. Taako is certain his fabricated skin couldn't even burn if he wanted it to, but the image is so delicious, Taako doesn't ever bring it up.  

And Taako cooks. Everything. Says he aims to fatten them up on pot roast and bonbons and is holding true to that promise pretty well so far. 

Taako slides into Kravitz's lap and smiles that smile that signals he wants something.

"What?" Kravitz asks, perfectly attuned.

"You don't miss your job, do you?"

"Not a bit," Kravitz answers. "Though remember, I had been doing it for  _two hundred years_  before we met."

"Yeah, and I busted you out," Taako grins, twisting a finger into one of Kravitz's loose curls around his temple.

"I seem to remember having a mature conversation one-on-one with my boss and employer..."

"And _I_  seem to remember a daring rescue," Taako teases, nipping at his ear. "It seems we've arrived at an impasse."

"Sorry, did you climb all up in my business," Kravitz shoots back, gesticulating to the very small space they share atop his dining room chair, "just to argue the finer points of my workplace departure?"

"I just wanted to uh," Taako hedges, and kisses Kravtiz's neck for good measure while he chooses his words. He's good at distracting from his discomfort with well-timed physical affection. A bad habit he's trying to break, though perhaps not hard enough.

"I just wanted to make sure you're not, like, bored here, my dude."

"How could anyone be bored with you, darling?" Kravitz laughs. He swats at Taako's hip. "Come on. This is better finished upstairs, I think."

Taako is so happy, it's hard to conceive of the idea that anyone else in the world might not be.

\--------------------

Taako finally deems the house 'ready for guests' after three or so months. Kravitz suspects it was 'ready' pretty soon after they'd moved in, but Taako seems protective of their privacy and what they share, so Kravitz doesn't push. Privately, he preens at the notion that they have something special enough to keep secreted away. 

But now there are yellow curtains hanging in the windows and china plates to eat off of and a little white fence around Kravitz's garden and so Taako sighs and says, 

"Guess we better show this classy fucker off," with a little bit of pride and a little bit of chagrin.

"Maggie, if you wanna come see the new digs, holler at cha'boy," he barks into his stone of farspeech and not more than a few minutes later comes Magnus' barely-contained yelp of,

"Tonight?" 

Taako looks up at Kravitz, who shrugs politely.

"Sure, bud, if you want."

"Yeah," Magnus exclaims. They hear sudden rustling on the other end. "What should I bring? You guys need like -- sheets? You all want some sheets or something? Maybe a pot?"

"No, Mags, we've got sheets. And pots."

"Okay, I'll cook something. I'd love to cook you something. Kravitz isn't vegetarian, right?"

"Magnus," Taako says, a little more firmly. "I think I've got the cooking covered."

"Ha," Magnus laughs, but a little hollowly. "Yeah. True that."

There is sudden barking on the other end, and Taako flinches and holds the stone of farspeech further away from him. 

"Is that a dog?" 

"Sit, Izzy! Izzy - sit! Good girl. Good girl, Izzy!"

Taako rolls his eyes and mouths ' _he got a dog_ ' in Kravitz's direction.

"Yes, that's apparent," Kravitz whispers back.

"Yeah, you got me," Magnus finally replies, the dog chaos seemingly appropriately dealt with. "She's great. She's such a good dog."

"Isn't your fish gonna be jealous? Steven?"

"Ah," Magnus huffs. He makes a strange sound that's not quite a laugh. "He, um. Well, fish don't live forever and he had a pretty good run - maybe he didn't take so well to Earth gravity, or something."

"Oh." Taako rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Sorry to hear that, my dude."

"It's okay."

"You didn't tell me."

"You didn't tell me that you bought sheets," Magnus replies playfully.

\--------------------

Kravitz and Magnus get on like gangbusters because, it appears, Magnus has also recently gotten "like,  _really_  into gardening."

They disappear together to go kneel in some dirt for a while, or at least that's how Taako would describe it. He watches them from the porch with a lemonade in hand. They're not fully out of earshot, but he can only really hear them when they're laughing. Which they seem to do often.

"You're not talking about me, are you?" Taako drawls when he finally approaches. Kravitz grins up at him from underneath that ridiculous sunhat, which he doesn't need at all, but even less so right now as the mid-afternoon soon tips its course to setting.  

"Not at all, darling. And if so, it's only good." 

"These artichokes are gonna come in nicely," Magnus appraises, gesticulating to them. "Kravitz did a killer job." 

He pauses. Bites back a guffaw. 

"Pun unintended?" he squeaks, by way of an apology.

And Kravitz, damn the man, genuinely enjoys the joke and laughs.

"Okay," Taako says a little too loudly, "I'm getting dinner started. Don't giggle yourselves into a conniption before the fish can steam." 

Taako's dinner is excellent, of course. Magnus eats politely in a way he never did back in the mess hall back on the moon base. There's a lot about him that's different, Taako supposes, finally taking the time to notice. He's not sure he's ever seen the man in long sleeves, to start. His face looks older somehow, though Taako can't discern if it's because of the full, red beard Magnus has allowed to grow in or something else, less easily definable, around his eyes. He's gone a bit soft around the middle, which Taako regards a little fondly. 

"Where did you say you are again?" 

"Oh, not that far from here. Kinda off the Sword Coast near Port Llast. I can walk to the ocean. It's great."

"Sounds nice," Kravitz appraises. "And not too far from Neverwinter, if you need it."

"Yeah," Magnus agrees cheerily. "But I don't go in all that much. I built my house and I've got, y'know, my dog. And a real nice rocking chair. A good fireplace."

"That's lovely," Kravitz replies. He kicks Taako under the table.

"Uh, huh." Taako agrees immediately. "Mags, you're living the life."

Taako waits until Magnus lowers his gaze to shoot Kravitz an accusatory look. Kravitz looks back at him oddly coldly, impassively. He shrugs in Magnus' direction encouragingly.

"Think Krav and I could drop in and see it some time?"

"Yeah, I'd love that," Magnus answers a little too quickly. He finishes off the last of his plate in a very reasonably sized, un-Magnus-like bite. "Um. Can I help clean up?"

\---------------------

With Magnus huddled over the sink concerned with the dishes, Kravitz pulls Taako aside. Quite literally. That is to say, he secures one thin hand around Taako's arm and yanks him into the foyer.

"Holy moly, _bone brain_ , what's with the iron grip?" Taako yelps, as he's nearly manhandled into the coatrack. "Can't wait any longer for a little action?"

Kravitz looks very solemn. Taako, for once, decides not to needle him further.

"You need to talk with Magnus," he says. "Tonight."

"What? Why?" Taako splutters. "He's not like, dying, is he? And only you can tell with your death-vision or something?"

"No, Taako, he's not dying," Kravitz hisses. "He's  _miserable_."

Taako screws up his face. Thinks laughing might be impolite, so he swallows that back, with an apparent amount of difficulty that nearly makes Kravitz roll his eyes.

"Krav, he's fine," he chides. "He got a  _dog_. He's totally cool."

The look that Kravitz shoots back could level an entire village.

"Babe," Taako retorts, a little pleadingly. "That's not what we do, okay? We've been through some shit but he says,  _you good?_  And I say,  _I'm good!_  And we go save the world again. That's more our bag."

"Like it or not, that man is your brother," Kravitz sighs. He reaches for Taako's face, perhaps to brush some hair aside, but Taako stops his hand mid-air and bats it aside.

"You don't know that," Taako snaps, aware of his reactionary petulance to being told how to feel, but still feeling it boil up all the same. "You don't get to tell me what things are and aren't. You weren't there."

Kravitz seems taken aback. He seems momentarily to be a bit stuck, as if it takes a fair amount of effort to keep up the human form he conjures.

"No, you're right," Kravitz relents. He touches Taako's hip almost apologetically. "I - I'm sorry, perhaps I'm projecting too much of myself. But you have to understand... everyone I've ever known. Everyone who meant anything to me, the last time I lived here on this plane, are gone."

Taako exhales all his breath very suddenly. It leaves his chest feeling a bit empty. A bit like he's been punched.

"I think of things I wish I'd said or done more often than I care to admit," Kravitz continues. "I don't plan on making the same mistakes this time around."

He kisses Taako, just at the underside of his jaw.

"I love you, darling. I love you."

Taako tangles his fingers at the nape of Kravitz's neck, pulling gently at the hair there, just the way he knows Kravitz likes.

"You knew you were right all along, didn't you? You always know when you're right."

\------------------- 

Taako pulls Magnus out onto the front porch with the promise of some stargazing. The way Magnus follows behind with such unbridled glee gives him the sinking feeling of leading a dog out behind the house to shoot it. He resolves not to shoot Magnus, figuratively. Literally, too, though that was not ever on the table. 

"So what's crackin', my boy, tell me the real deets," he begins cheerfully, leaning against Magnus as they settle on the front stairs. Magnus chuckles and shrugs. 

"Y'know, kinda just what I told you. I made myself a nice little cottage. Got me a dog." 

"Yeah, yeah, but what about the other stuff? How does a big hero like Magnus Burnsides spend his well-earned time off?"

"You know no one down here knows what we did," Magnus retorts, but a little blushingly. Taako nearly forgot how Magnus took to any praise like a plant turning towards sunlight.

"Any, ah..." Taako clears his throat. "special visitors?"

Magnus squeaks a very, very small laugh. It reminds Taako of that last time they all sat together to talk to Angus. How fond Magnus seemed, and how careful. 

"Nah, I think that's pretty solidly off the table for me," Magnus answers. His hands fidget in his lap. "Um. Yeah."

"No, hey, I get it," Taako replies. "I, uh, as much as anyone can possibly pretend to get it."

Magnus nods gratefully. Flashes Taako a wan but genuine smile.

"But with this  _punim_ ," Taako continues, grabbing Magnus by the beard with both hands and shaking him. "I can't believe they're not battering down your door."

"Thanks, bud," Magnus says as Taako pulls away laughing. And he lets his hand rest on Taako's shoulder very lightly, like he fears he might startle. So Taako takes the plunge. 

"Mags," he begins, and his voice catches in his throat. A terrible start. Magnus immediately notices that something is unusual and turns to face Taako dead on. His searing earnestness is sometimes difficult to look at, even on good days. Even when there isn't something Taako isn't quite sure how to say.

"If something were wrong, and you didn't tell me," Taako presses on with difficulty. "I'd be -- I mean, you should. Tell me."

Magnus looks winded, but not upset. 

"I mean, you're like. You're my brother. Yeah?"

Tears spring to Magnus' eyes immediately. He swipes them away quickly with the back of his hand.

"Yeah," he concurs, his voice small, tremorous. "You're my brother."

Taako tucks himself against Magnus' side; as close an invitation as he'll ever extend to allowing for one of Magnus' usual, crushing bearhugs. But instead Magnus folds one arm gently around Taako's shoulders and holds him. He exhales, jutteringly, and his whole ribcage rattles like a sputtering wagon.

"You don't feel like I abandoned you, Mags? Right? I didn't try to - "

"Gods, no," Magnus interjects. "I'm so happy for you, bud. I'm so happy."

And he's telling the truth because in instances like these, Magnus is incapable of anything else.

"Kravitz is -- man, he's great. And you're in love! It's -- It's the best, Taako. I know how that is, and it's the best."

"Yeah," Taako says, "it's pretty great."

He doesn't mean for those words to come out pityingly, but they're tinged with something somber. If Magnus notices, he's kind enough not to acknowledge it.

"I guess I, um. I guess I had a dumb fantasy. Of building us all a house, or something. You and me and Merle and Angus poking around whenever. But that's just -- that's just a thing I thought about. It's not -- I mean," he squeezes Taako against him tighter. "I'm trying to say, I don't resent the way things turned out."

"Okay," Taako says. "No lying."

"No lying," Magnus concurs. "Swear on my life."

There's the sound of the wind in nearby trees. Some bird with a hollow sort of whooping call. Magnus breathes heavily, and Taako listens to his heartbeat.

"You really like the beard?" Magnus asks at length. 

"Yeah, bubbeleh, it works for you. You're crushing the beard game."

\--------------------

Not more than a week later, Kravitz is dozing off when Taako's stone of farspeech crackles to life.

"Hey, bud, you awake?"

Carefully, Kravitz leans over Taako's sleeping form and snatches the stone off his nightstand.

"Hello," he answers. "This is Kravitz."

"Oh, hey Kravitz," Magnus says, "didn't mean to interrupt. This a bad time?"

"Taako is very much asleep, I'm afraid," Kravitz says, turning his head to reverify this fact. And Taako is. He's moved past meditation now that there's no reason to cram as much rest into as short a time as possible and instead chooses to fall asleep beside him at night. Kravitz, despite himself, feels an almost violent surge of affection and reaches out to rest his hand on one of Taako's bony hips. 

"Ah, sorry," Magnus says. "I'll leave you both to it."

"Magnus," Kravitz blurts out suddenly, before he can consider what he's doing. "I know that there's -- I know there's something you've been meaning to ask me."

Silence on the other line. Kravitz squeezes the stone in his fingers.

"It's that obvious, huh?" Magnus chuckles at length, but there's no humor in that empty laugh.

"Not to everyone. I've just been doing my job a very long time and you get to seeing it in people." 

"Don't tell me if it's bad," Magnus answers very quickly, like the words are slapped out of him. "I can't - if she's not happy I don't wanna - "

"No, she's very well. I promise."

He hears Magnus choke back a very small, strangulated sound. 

"Good," he rasps. "W-where is she?"

"Eternity looks different to everyone in the Astral Plane," Kravitz answers. "But Julia is no prisoner. She's with who she wants to be with, in a place of her choosing." 

"Raven's Roost?"

"I wouldn't know, Magnus, I'm sorry," he answers solemnly. "But happy. I swear it."

When Magnus finally responds "thank you" his voice is heavy and wet. Kravitz feels an overwhelming crash of emotions - emotions he is usually quite adept at keeping at bay. But he is suddenly awash in sympathy and anxiousness and discomfort and affection and the creeping fear of mortality. Something he hadn't considered in literal centuries. Taako beside him now, sighing in his sleep, but not forever. Not forever. And Magnus miles and miles away weeping about the same revelation, in a vastly different configuration.

Kravitz thinks,  _Gods, life is tiny isn't it?_  at just about the same time he thinks,  _we have to make the most of this giant eternity ahead of us_. 

He says neither. He only says,

"Of course, Magnus. You're a good man."

He hears him sniffling.

"No, you are," Magnus manages, his voice very hoarse. "You... I'm really glad. Really, really glad Taako is with you. And it worked out. I'm glad you have -- "

His voice grows very tight. 

"I'm so sorry. I think I should - I gotta go to bed. I'm sorry. Goodnight."

"Magnus," Kravitz interjects sharply, and he hopes the silence on the other line does not mean Magnus has already switched off his stone.

"You stop by here any time you'd like," Kravitz concludes. "We're both very happy when you do."

\--------------------

"Krav," Taako calls over his shoulder. "This stair is straight busted. I'm gonna call Maggie and see if he's got time to come over and fix it tonight." 

"Surely," Kravitz responds, and patently resolves not to mention he'd seen Taako cast some sort of transmutation spell on it earlier.

"Is it too soon to make chicken scallopini again? I sort of have a new vision for the mushrooms I'm itching to try."

"It all sounds excellent to me," Kravitz answers, and finds he means that very sincerely.


End file.
